I took my DSLR out into the garden a few days ago. I snapped lots of pics of all our vegetables. I used a soft focus and the pictures turned out quite alright. The lighting was evening light so there wasn't the glare from the sun. It was a cloudy day.
The flowers were more of flowers from the vegetables. You will see later. We grow many things - bittergourds, collard greens, okra, eggplant, long beans, sweet potatoes, luffas, and some herbs like oregano and basil. It is so fun to see things grow when they are in season. And to harvest them and cook them and eat them! Basically my mom grows them and cooks them and i eat them!
Here are some collard greens growing in a bed. The one on the left is kailan and the one on the right is pak choy. Sometimes I bake the kale leaves to make kale chips. The pak choy is nice in noodle soup or as a stir fry.
Here is a fruit called buah kedondong in malay. In english they are called spondias dulcis. They are quite sour and crunchy. They go well with sour plum powder. We also grow guava and eat that with sour plum powder as well. They are always in season.
Below are 2 young sweet potato plants in a raised bed. The soil is loosened so that the sweet potato roots can grow into tubers. The leaves can be eaten as well. We leave the sweet potato to grow in the raised bed for 100 days according to the instructions. We just harvested a batch and I will talk about them in the next blog post.
Below is aloe vera growing in a pot. I love aloe vera because it is so soothing. It can be used to make drinks. My mom has also tried it is a hair moisturizer and I bet it would be a good face mask for skincare. I already use store bought aloe vera as a face mask. It is good on burns and cuts as well. Really soothes the skin.
This is oregano. It grows very quickly and as can be seen can grow to be very overgrown easily. We used to have it in a bed but it kept getting overgrown so we grow it in a pot now. It is very furry in texture. We eat this in meatball soup or in an omelet with egg. It is said to be good for coughs. It is a nice herb that we have. We have basil as well. Also overgrows easily.
This purple vegetable below is eggplant. It grows hanging down from a plant. We used to have too many eggplants - more than we could finish eating! Now they are starting to grow again. I love eating eggplants. It can be eaten in a stir fry, which is how I like to eat it. Or it also can be boiled or baked plain. Also nice.
This is the flower from which the eggplant becomes a fruit. It is a pretty purple flower! When the flower is pollinated it grows to be an eggplant.
Below is another pretty flower. This is a flower for luffa. I love luffa cooked in an egg soup. So fluffy and nice. Not shown here is bittergourd as they have not flowered yet. They are bitter but nice. I like it in dishes like soup, a sitrfry or in an omelet. It grows from a vine. Like a creeper with curly tendrils. We have to manage it very well or it will creep on anything!
Last but not least is some long beans. It also grows from a vine. The beans grow to be very long - around 30 inches! It can grow a lot in a single day also. Sometimes a few inches a day!
Overall, I am glad we have a garden where I can just go out to and admire. I like being connected to nature. And to be able to eat vegetables from it is an added bonus! I like these photos that I took with the DSLR and it is nice because we do have such a photo ready garden. I love having a garden!Labels: garden
